Chapter Text
“I’m pregnant.”
Everyone gathered around was stunned. Not shocked, but stunned that Rebecca felt the need to tell everyone in the pub that she was pregnant. Surely it was nothing to do with most of them. Surely Ross should be the one being told quietly and alone, without so many onlookers being witness to his surprise.
“I have something else that I need to tell you all.” She continued, turning to look directly at where Aaron and Robert sat. Aaron noticed that Robert had stilled and had placed his pint firmly back on the table. He was glaring at Rebecca, as though daring her to continue. “I know that you all think that Robert is somehow the perfect husband, all doting and caring about your beloved Aaron. But, I think you’ll find that he’s the same old Robert as before.”
“Shut up, Rebecca.”
“We slept together. When Aaron was in prison.” She turned to look around at everyone. “When poor Aaron was suffering in prison, Robert was trying to get back together with me. And now I’m pregnant. I’m sure you can all put two and two together…” Rebecca smiled, meanly and viciously in Robert’s direction.
Robert merely stared back at her. He couldn’t bear to look at Aaron. He couldn’t bear to look at anyone. His life was crashing down around him and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. Aaron’s voice broke through the white noise in his ears as though he had shouted.
“I’m not even surprised.” He whispered. Robert’s heart broke, again, as he looked to his right to see Aaron’s eyes water. Physically, he was so close to him. And yet he could almost see the walls going back up, with Robert back on the other side.
“I’m so sorry.” He breathed.
“How could you? After everything that you said to me. You told me that – no, you promised that you would be faithful.” His voice broke, and Robert reached to touch him. “Don’t touch me. Don’t even speak to me. I need some time before I can even look at you.”
With that, Aaron stood up shakily but with his head held high, and solemnly walked out of the pub. The pub was still silent. Robert was eternally grateful that no Dingles were in the pub at that time. He guessed that the only Dingle that Rebecca cared about was the one who mattered most to Robert.
“You bitch.” Chrissie’s voice rang clear through the silence. “My ex-husband? Really Bex? I was sure that you had learned to be a little classier than that.”
“I’m sorry, sis. What can I say? I’m just that irresistible.” Rebecca smirked while Chrissie scowled before tilting her head to one side.
“How can you be so certain that Robert is the father? You were sleeping with Ross for weeks, surely he’s more likely?”
“What?”
“Surely Ross is far more likely to be the father.” Chrissie continued. “How are you so sure that it’s Robert?”
“I – I don’t know.” Rebecca stuttered. “The dates match up I guess–”
“But Robert,” Chrissie interrupted her again, suddenly turning to Robert who had hoped to avoid more confrontation with his ex-wife. “Didn’t you tell me that it would be incredibly difficult for you to get someone pregnant?”
“He certainly never seemed to have any problems with me, Chris. Maybe there were just some… problems between the two of you.”
“Shut up, not difficult like that. Well?”
Robert shifted, incredibly uncomfortable that a subject like his fertility was being discussed out in the open in front of multiple relative strangers.
“Look, can we take this somewhere else? Outside maybe?” He begged.
The two sisters looked at each other and shrugged before walking towards the door. Robert followed reluctantly behind them, attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone in the pub.
“Well? We’re outside now, no one else listening.” Chrissie pounced the moment the door closed.
“Chrissie’s right. She wanted a baby and nothing was happening. So I went to the doctor and they found out that I had a few problems with my…” he hesitated, looking around before whispering, “sperm.”
“For God’s sake, Robert, how old are you?” Chrissie asked incredulously. “You are allowed to say the word sperm you know!”
“So what does that mean?” Rebecca persisted, ignoring her sister.
“It means that I’m probably not the father of that.” He shrugged, nodding towards her stomach. “I’d like you to do a paternity test though, to be sure, although I would bet a large sum of money on it being Ross’s. I’ll even pay for it if you need, but right now I need to find my husband and beg for him to stay with me.”
The first place that Robert looked for Aaron was at The Mill. The place that was supposed to signify the beginning of their family and the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Now it just reminded Robert of all that he had now lost and all that he had managed to throw away.
He found Aaron sat at the bottom of the spiral staircase, his shoulders hunched over. Robert hardly had time to move closer before Aaron started speaking.
“I’ve figured out when you and her did it.”
“How?” Robert asked, startled.
“It was after I told you to get lost, wasn’t it? Because the next time you came to see me you were all… shifty. Like you were hiding something. I could tell you were. But you told me that there was nothing, and like the idiot that I am I believed you. Because you told me that you were going to be faithful and I told you that I would work on trusting you. I’m such an idiot.”
“No you’re not, Aaron please–”
“Yes I am.” Aaron said simply, cutting off Robert’s begging. “I’m an idiot for believing that you could behave without me around. Come on then. Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know. I found out you were doing drugs and I panicked. You weren’t listening to me. It was like you had given up. And then you told me that I was no use to you and I just lost it.” Robert cleared his throat and blinked back tears. “I thought that you had broken up with me and I thought that we were over so I came here and–”
“You came here?! You had sex with another person in our house? In the house that I had never even been inside?”
“I didn’t plan it!”
“Then how did it happen?!”
“I came here to be alone. I got drunk and I must have texted her at some point because she turned up telling me that I’d asked to see her. I had drunk most of a bottle of whiskey by then, so the details are a bit hazy. The next thing I know I’m waking up alone with no clothes on and a note from her next to me.” He shook his head as though to shake away the memory. “I wanted to tell you, but then your mum told me I should wait until you were out of prison so…”
“My mum knew?” Aaron asked incredulously. He couldn’t believe that Robert was still walking around given that his mother knew.
“Of course she knew. I had to tell her. I didn’t want it to be a secret from you. I didn’t want this to be something else that was between us. But everything just snowballed and I couldn’t figure out how to tell you.”
Aaron sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face.
“I don’t know how I can forgive you.”
“I’m sorry, Aaron, I really am–”
“Stop saying that you’re sorry! I know that you are. I don’t know how I can forgive you, but I know that the past couple of months haven’t been easy on either of us. And I love you, so much that I think it would hurt me more to be without you than it will to work through all of this.”
Robert didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to say anything in case Aaron changed his mind and realised that Robert wasn’t worth it. All he could do was whisper “I love you too” while aching to reach out and pull Aaron into a tight hug like he had before work that morning.
“But now she’s pregnant. And I’m going to have to live with a reminder that you slept with someone else for the rest of my life.”
“It’s highly unlikely to be mine.” Robert muttered.
“What?” Aaron asked, unsure that he had heard properly. “How do you know that?”
“Well I won’t know for certain, until she does the paternity test. But let’s just say that there’s a reason that I’ve never got anyone pregnant despite all my cheating…”
“You mean… You don’t think that you can have children?” Robert nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me? You should have told me.”
Robert bit his lip and began fiddling with his watch.
“It’s because it’s to do with my past.”